I was out hiking again this weekend, kind of uneventful and mentally refreshing, been too busy in the last month to do too much outdoors stuff. Did manage to kill a rattlesnake with a rock (hand thrown, no slingshot involved 
), and found a large patch of cactus apples well away from the paved road. There were hundreds of them. It's one of the biggest wild patches I'd seen in a while.
You try to avoid harvesting wild plants at least within the first 50ft of a well traveled road. Some people do 50 yards, but 50ft is probably OK. It's the [email protected] in car exhaust, the heavier and nastier stuff lands near the road and gets on and in the plants.
Cactus apples are also known as the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. They are about the size of a large hen's egg and they taste a lot like a raspberry. They have spines on the skin and large seeds in the center that are reminiscent of a pomegranate. The juice is beet red, thick and sweet.
Prickly pear cactus fruit have gotten to be quite the delicacy amongst many gourmets in the world. Here they grow wild and sometimes in great big juicy bunches. The Spanish liked them so much that centuries ago they exported the prickly pear cactus back to the old world and you can now find it growing in several countries, like Morocco.
Many species of cactus have delicious fruit. But some, like the saguaro, are hard to get to, being way at the top, especially before the birds get them. You can knock them down with a long pole, like a skeleton tube from the husk of a dead saguaro, or a long agave stalk, from what some call a 'century plant'. Mature, dry agave stalks make great walking sticks and shelter poles. It's strong and very light, what some refer to as desert bamboo.
To harvest food plants in the desert, I carry a pair of long barbecue tongs. The inexpensive steel kind with a spring loaded hinge and spoon shaped ends work great. In the desert, they are mandatory and essential gear. A long knife also helps. This is one of the reasons I carry a khukuri. In the desert you need something that has some reach. A machete can come in handy. When I rehaft my Norlund, I'll use a longer handle and it'll probably see more use. I was also carrying a plastic bucket to bring the fruit home in.
To eat a cactus apple, one convenient way to do it in the field is to spear it with a regular sized dinner fork. While you are holding it with the fork, you slice the ends off and peel the spine laden skin off with a very sharp knife. I also eat them at home like that. Some people take them home and make jellies, syrups, and jams out of them while blanching the skin off with boiling water.
), and found a large patch of cactus apples well away from the paved road. There were hundreds of them. It's one of the biggest wild patches I'd seen in a while.You try to avoid harvesting wild plants at least within the first 50ft of a well traveled road. Some people do 50 yards, but 50ft is probably OK. It's the [email protected] in car exhaust, the heavier and nastier stuff lands near the road and gets on and in the plants.
Cactus apples are also known as the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. They are about the size of a large hen's egg and they taste a lot like a raspberry. They have spines on the skin and large seeds in the center that are reminiscent of a pomegranate. The juice is beet red, thick and sweet.
Prickly pear cactus fruit have gotten to be quite the delicacy amongst many gourmets in the world. Here they grow wild and sometimes in great big juicy bunches. The Spanish liked them so much that centuries ago they exported the prickly pear cactus back to the old world and you can now find it growing in several countries, like Morocco.
Many species of cactus have delicious fruit. But some, like the saguaro, are hard to get to, being way at the top, especially before the birds get them. You can knock them down with a long pole, like a skeleton tube from the husk of a dead saguaro, or a long agave stalk, from what some call a 'century plant'. Mature, dry agave stalks make great walking sticks and shelter poles. It's strong and very light, what some refer to as desert bamboo.
To harvest food plants in the desert, I carry a pair of long barbecue tongs. The inexpensive steel kind with a spring loaded hinge and spoon shaped ends work great. In the desert, they are mandatory and essential gear. A long knife also helps. This is one of the reasons I carry a khukuri. In the desert you need something that has some reach. A machete can come in handy. When I rehaft my Norlund, I'll use a longer handle and it'll probably see more use. I was also carrying a plastic bucket to bring the fruit home in.
To eat a cactus apple, one convenient way to do it in the field is to spear it with a regular sized dinner fork. While you are holding it with the fork, you slice the ends off and peel the spine laden skin off with a very sharp knife. I also eat them at home like that. Some people take them home and make jellies, syrups, and jams out of them while blanching the skin off with boiling water.
